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There is a great potential for mutual beneficial synergies between the two fields of Collaborative Networks and Sustainability science. This potential has in fact been recognized in many fields where these synergies are leading to novel approaches and solutions. It is particularly evident that the challenges of sustainability call for a wide collaboration among multiple stakeholders, as the needed changes exceed the capacity and capability of individual actors. With the purpose to illustrate the possible contribution and challenges for collaborative networks in sustainability, a number of relevant cases where examples of such synergies are already identified are briefly introduced.

The manufacturing sector is experiencing a profound transformation as reflected in the Industry 4.0 movement, combined with the growing societal concerns for sustainability. This trend has led to the notion of sustainable manufacturing. On the other hand, the increasing interconnectivity among organisations, people, and physical systems, supported by recent developments in communication technologies, points to the important role that collaborative networks have in the ongoing digital transformation processes. As such, this paper analyses the synergies between sustainable manufacturing and collaborative networks. More specifically, the goal is to analyse how the responsibility for the various facets of sustainability can be distributed among the multiple entities involved in manufacturing. This study is based on both literature survey and our experience in various research projects in the area and is organised according to the typical six dimensions of Industry 4.0. The work is complemented with a brief summary of proposed indicators to measure sustainability under this networked manufacturing perspective.

The establishment of collaborative business ecosystems is widely accepted as a key strategy in the reindustrialization processes. This is clearly present in the ongoing policy discussions and industry-oriented research roadmaps. A brief analysis of recent contributions to the PRO-VE conference shows the active role already played by the collaborative networks community in this process. Focusing on areas such as service orientation and service-enhanced products, sustainability issues, collaboration stimulation strategies, co-innovation, and improvement of distributed processes, the area is contributing with valuable models, organizational structures, infrastructures and tools to enable a new generation of sustainable industrial systems.

The vast diversity of current sensing devices and mechanisms enable the creation of data-rich environments which gives the opportunity to create smart systems. The smartness of systems must transcend individual interests and fulfill collective aspirations and environmental needs. Therefore, new products, processes, enterprises, communities and any kind of systems must be envisioned as Sensing, Smart and Sustainable (S3). This paper discusses the trends and challenges for S3 applied to everything. Furthermore, it suggests that the knowledge produced in the field of collaborative networks might be used to leverage the S3 capabilities.